As recently as last month, the Vatican has been pretty complacent about the systemic persecution of Christians in Nigeria by Islamist terrorists.

Look no further than Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin's statement on the matter, which was part of a press conference where numerous issues were addressed, and this topic was not the first.

According to the Oct 21 Vatican News report:

Turning to Africa and the surge of hatred and violence affecting Christians in parts of Nigeria, Cardinal Parolin—citing local sources—stressed that the situation there is "not a religious conflict, but rather more a social one, for example, disputes between herders and farmers.

“We should also recognize that many Muslims in Nigeria are themselves victims of this same intolerance,” he noted. “These are extremist groups that make no distinctions in pursuing their goals. They use violence against anyone they see as an opponent.”

Just resource disputes, religion having nothing to do with it, he suggested. Everybody's a victim, so nobody's a victim, que sera sera. Can't we all get along?

Yet somehow it's only Christians who are victims of monstrous acts such as this one, which are only getting bigger and bolder.

According to the BBC:

More than 300 children and staff are now thought to have been kidnapped by gunmen from a Catholic school in central Nigeria, making it one of the worst mass abductions the country has seen.

The Christian Association of Nigeria said 303 students and 12 teachers were taken from St Mary's School in Papiri, Niger state - substantially more than previously estimated.

It said the figures have been revised upwards "after a verification exercise".

The kidnapping comes amid a surge of attacks by armed groups. The revised number of people taken surpasses the 276 abducted during the infamous Chibok mass abduction of 2014.

Local police said armed men stormed the school at around 02:00 local time (01:00 GMT) on Friday morning, abducting students who were staying there.

It's been going on for awhile. Here's a massacre from two years ago:

The complacency has been incredible, as if the entire situation has been viewed through an exclusively political or NGO lens -- resources, social conflict, tribal warfare.

What's bad about it is that this is a true Christian martyr situation, an authentic persecution of Christians by evil fanatics who demand that these new Christians renounce their faith and join their own or else become slaves or murder victims.

Saints will emerge from these bloody attacks and so will the growth of the Church as brave Nigerian Christians hold to their faith. Yet they don't acknowledge this reality out of fear of offending Muslims.

This ought to be recognized by the Church, yet it's not. They are still trying to appease Muslim fanatics as a matter of diplomacy instead of recognize the ultimate sacrifices from faith of the Nigerian Christians.

The Nigerians, though, know what kind of situation they are in, according to the Catholic Herald:

... Tersoo Anjila a Christian from Benue State, told the Catholic Herald: “In villages, worshippers have been attacked in churches repeatedly, with thousands killed. There are times Christian communities are attacked and people are murdered in cold blood while asleep. In my state, Benue, over 300 people were massacred some five months ago by Fulani terrorists. I want to make it clear that this is jihad, it is an Islamist expansionist agenda. Any reason advanced for these killings is a lie. I am completely in support of any intervention that will bring an end to this.”

The Nigerian was referring public pressure from President Trump, who spoke of sending commandos in to hose that hellhole out. 

There's also this:

And this:

Now President Trump's statement, pressure from the U.S. public (where there are many beloved Nigerian priests here) and above all, this mass kidnapping seems to have finally roused the Vatican to say something forceful to address this Oct. 7-like event, which easily could have been modeled from that by the Islamist terrorists:

The Catholic Herald also noted that the pope also made two key appointments in an apparent bid to sideline Parolin:

However, alongside his comments, the Pope has also quietly signalled his support for the embattled religious minority in the sub-Saharan nation by making two prominent Curia appointments of Nigerian priests.

Fr Edward Daniang Daleng was named Vice-Regent of the Prefecture of the Papal Household on 10 November. The Augustinian priest originates from Plateau State, one of the worst affected areas of Nigeria. Last month saw coordinated assaults in the region killing at least 25 Christian villagers, including six children, in just one week. Fr Daleng now takes hold of the second-highest position in the Vatican office that organises audiences. A long-time friend of the pontiff, he will play an important role in the shaping of this papacy.

The second, and yet more significant, is the appointment of Msgr Anthony Onyemuche Ekpo from Abia State as Assessor for General Affairs of the Vatican’s Secretariat of State on 19 November. Msgr Ekpo is now the third-highest-ranking official in the Section for General Affairs, after the Secretary of State and the Substitute for General Affairs.

Speaking out for persecuted Christians is the one area where the Vatican can exert true moral authority and not sound like the United Nations or some sanctimonious NGO. What's more, unlike the migrant situation in the U.S., this is where the growth of the Church really is. 

The Vatican's focus up until now has been on the supposed mistreatment of illegal migrants in the U.S. who are being sent home, which is hardly a punishment, let alone torture or persecution. After all, many are going back to their Catholic countries. Yes, sending people back is disruptive, and yes, there are customer service problems, and yes, there are some sad stories, but illegal aliens are being treated reasonably humanely and offered ways out with cash with potential for return. The Church has some interest in this, given that a quarter of its parishioners are foreign-born, whether legal or illegal, meaning, Steve Bannon's claim about 'filling the pews' is at least partly true. Most of the Vatican's money comes from the U.S., too.

Yet the Nigerians who really fill the pews, haven't drawn nearly the same level of Vatican concern.

That now seems to be changing. Pope Leo XIV has recently conceded that nations have a right to control their borders, so the constant harping on that policy issue, dwarfing all other issues, has in the end, ended up eclipsing more serious issues such as the systemic religious persecution of new Christians on the African continent, whose population is still growing. Seems it's time for some real proportion about the Church's interests to be asserted.

Micromanaging President Trump's policies should be beneath the Church's purview. Shining a light on Nigeria's Christian martyrs and saints is very much the Church's mission. It's a good thing that we are seeing some signs of change in the Vatican.

Image: Screen shot from EWTN video on X.